The Foxer

That, my friends, is a genuine Nash & Thomson FN-20 four-gun tail turret as fitted to the Lancaster, Wellington, Stirling and Whitley. Once Singed Seraph have finished the software (ETC May) and Roman has installed the screen, hydraulics and sound system/proofing (ETC God only knows) the defoxing annexe will boast its very own 6DOF Tail-End Charlie sim! Stumped by a particularly fiendish foxer? The day will come when you’ll be able to vent your frustration on a bristle-chinned Bf 110 or Ju 88.

In 1978, following Dougie Bannister’s headline-grabbing giant-killing act at the IFF Invitational in Split, the BBC commissioned two foxer-based TV shows. The Raymond Baxter devised and fronted Friend or Foe? ran hobbled for a mere eight weeks. Occupying the prized post-Jackanory slot, Foxabout lasted well into the Eighties. If you can hear a hunting horn ‘tally-ho’ without involuntarily picturing either Jonathan King (host 1978-80) or Rolf Harris (host 1980-83) frolicking with contestants in the slime-filled moat of ‘Clue Castle’, you’re obviously not a middle-aged Brit.